Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-06-15

talks like that, and acts like that. and
pardons like that--do you wonder that
stephen stood looking at Him? hope to
spend eternity doing, the same thing.
must see Him. / must look upon that
face once clouded with my sin,
but now radiant with nv pardon.
want to touch that hand that knocked
off my shaekles. want TO hear that voice
which pronounced NV deliyerauoe. Re
hold Him, little children, for If Won live
to three score years and ten, you. viii see
none so fair. Behold Him, We aged ones,
for He only can shine through the dimness
Of your failing eresight. Behold Him,
earth. Behold Him, heaven. What a
moment when all the nations of the saved
shall gather around Christ! All faces that
way. All thrones that way, gazing, gazing
on Jesus
'His worth il all the nations knew,
Sure the whole earth would love Him too"
/ pass on now, and look at
STEPHEN STONED.
The world has always wanted to get rid
of good men. Their very life is an assault
upon .wickedhess. Out with Stephen
through the gates of the city. Down with
him over the preeipices. Let every
man come up and drop q stone upon his
head. Bnt these men did not so
much kill Stephen as they killed
themselves. Every stone rebounded upon
them. While these murderers were trans
fixed by the scOrn of all good men,
Stephen lived in the admiration of all
Christendom. Stephen stoned; but
Stephen alive. So all good men must be
pelted. All who will live godly in Christ
Jesus must suffer persecution. 1t is no
eulogy of man to say that everybody
likes him. Show me any one who is do
ing all his duty to State or Church, and /
will show You scores of men who utterly
abhor him.
Hall men speak well of you, it is be-
cause you are either
A LAGGARD Oh A DOLT.
If a steamer makes o rapid progress
through the waves, the water will boil
and foam all around it. Brave soldiers of
Jesus Christ will hear the carbines click.
When see man with voice, and money,
and influence all on the right side, and
some caricature him, and some sneer at
him, and some denOunce BIN, and men
who pretend to be actuated by right mo-
tives conspire to cripple him, to cast him
out, to destroy him, l say: stephen
stoned. When see man in some great
moral or religious reform battling against
grog-shOps, exposing wickedness in high
places, by active means trying to purify
the Church and better the worlds estate,
and find that the newspapers anathema-
tie him, and men, even good men, oppose
him and denounee him, because, though
he does good, he does good, he does not do
it in their way, say: stephen stoned"
The world, with infinite spite, took after
John Frederick Oberlin, and Robert Moi
fat, and Paul, and Stephen of the text.
But you notice, my friends, that while
they assaulted him they did not succeed
really in killing him. You may assault
good man, but you cannot kill him. On
the day of his death, Stephen spoke before
few people in Sanhedrim; this Sabbath
morning he addresses all Christendom.
Paul the Apostle stood on Mars Hill
addressing handful Of philoso-
pliers who knew not so much about
science as q modern school girl. To-day
he talks to all the millions Of Christen-
dom about the wonders of justification and
the glories of resurrection. John Wesley
was hoWled down by the mob to whom he
preached, and they threw bricks at him,
and they denounced him, and they jostled
him, and they spat upon him, and yet to-
day, in all lands he is admitted to be the
great father of Methodism. Booths bull
let vacated the Presidential chair; but
from that spot of cOagulated blood on the
floor in the box of FOrd's Theatre, there
sprang up the new life of nation.
Stephen stoned; but Stephen alive.
Pass on now, and see .-
STEPHEN IN HIS DYING PRAYER.
His first thought was not how the stones
hurt his head, nor what would become of
his body. His first thought was about his
spirit Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
The murderer standing on the trap-door,
the black cap being drawn over his head
before the execution, may grimace about
the future; but You and have no shame
in confessing some anxiety about where
we are going to come out. You are not all
body. There is within you soul. /
see it CLEAN from your eyes to-day, and
see it irradiating your c0untenance. Some
times am abashed before an audience,
not because / come under your physical
eyesight, but because / realize the truth
that | stand before so many immortal
spirits. The probability is that your body
will at last find sepulchrein some OF the
cemeteries that surround this city. There
is no doubt but that your obsequies will
be decent and respectful, and You will be
able to pillow your head under the maple,
or the Norway spruce, or the cypress, or
the blosSoming fir; but this spirit about
which Stephen prayed, what direction
will that take? What guide will escort
ii? What gate will open to receive
it? What cloud will be cleft for its path
way? After it has got beyond the light Of
our sun will there be torches lighed for it
the rest of the way? Will the soul have
TO travel through long deserts before it
reaches the good land? If we should lose
our pathway will there be castle at
whose gate we may ask the way to the
city? o, this mysterious spirit within us!
1t has two wings, but it is in o cage now.
1t is locked fast to keep it; but let the
door of this case open the least, and that
soul is of. Eagles wing could not catch
it. The lightnings are not swift enough to
take up with it. When the soul leaves
the body it takes fifty worlds at bound.
And have / no anxiety about it? Have
you no anxiety about itH do not care
what you do with my body when my soul
is gone, or whether you believe in crema-
ton or inhumation. l shall sleep just as
we'll in wrapping of sackcloth as in satin
lined with eagles down. But my soul
before leave this house this morning |
will find out where it is going to land
Thank God for the intimarion Of my text,
that when we die Jesus takes us. That
answers all questions for me. What.
though there were massive bars between
here aud the city of light,
JESUS COULD REMOVE THEM.
What though there were great Saharas OF
darkness, Jesus could illume them. What
though | get weary on the way, Christ
could lift me on His omnipotent shoulder
What though there were chasms TO cross,
His hand could transport me. Then let
Stephens prayer be my dying htany.